SOLARIUM:
In ancient Rome there was a god named Janus,
the two-faced god of beginnings and endings.
In his right hand he held creation, 
and in his left, destruction.

In fact, if you look at other pantheons 
there are numerous gods of birth and death... 
but very few of the actual living.

It is a curious insight into our souls 
that we have numerous ways to mark the start and the finish
of a thing...  but few to remember the middle.  
Beginnings and endings are powerful to us...
and all too frequently we forget the parts in the middle.

MEMORIUM:
Victoria Brown did not forget.
She was a women that lived in the middle, 
every single day of her life.
She lived in the everpresent now.

She was always finding ways to inspire people to live,
or conspire to get them to live, for that matter.
When I was reclusive, cloistered in my studies, 
she would remind me: Let's Get Out There!  Live Life!
and then whisk me off to some grand adventure.

And whether it was bringing me to CLAGS meetings 
without my knowing about it, or setting up 
surprise birthday parties for herself, or 
being the guest of honor at the Vicki Roast:
she was always there, right in the middle of it.

Vicki's zest for life was palpable.
I'm willing to bet that every man that knew her 
(or woman for that matter) felt the attraction of it
life calling out to life.  A clarion call to living.

I am sad that Vicki is gone
and I am angry that sometimes life is unfair
and I mourn her passing
but I want to remember her, her life, her living

HONORARIUM:
Because that's who Vicki was.  A woman alive.

Without doubt Vicki's birth was a joyous event
and similarly certain, her death is a tragic story
that is more than a little disheartening.
But neither one explains who Vicki really was.
She existed not in her brief start or short finish, 
but in that big part in the middle.  
  Her life.

I choose to remember Vicki's life 
and the valuable lesson she taught me about living.
Henceforth I shall invoke Victoria Brown as a goddess
... the goddess of the middle.  The lady of living.

I hope you'll join me in honoring Vicki in this way.
She would want for each of us a life filled to the brim:
Jump into the middle of your life! she would say.
Now, now is the time to live!

To the Goddess of the Middle:
  Victoria Brown